Ylang-Ylang - 7-10-2003 at 11:23
I also tried the HCl dissolve of nickel with same (slow) results, and am now looking for electrolytic methods to accellerate the process.
Unfortunately, I don't know electrochem well. If I put some nickels in a copper basket, since the nickel is more noble, could I just plate it on
the other electrode? Or is there some way of increasing the rate of acid dissolving the nickel?
blip - 8-10-2003 at 15:28
I've been messing around with HCL, H<sub>2</sub>O<sub>2</sub>, and Cu pennies recently and it seems that the copper is
oxidized. I use pool HCl (heavily contaminated with FeCl<sub>x</sub>
and store-bought H<sub>2</sub>O<sub>2</sub>. I was being very careful at first because I did not want
Cl<sub>2</sub> to spew in my face. Maybe that'll do the trick, but beware: nickel compounds are very poisonous IIRC!
chemoleo - 8-10-2003 at 17:18
Did you try to heat up Ni and HCl? I am sure the rate of reaction would go up...
Otherwise, try electrolysing Ni, where Ni would be the anode, in a weak HCl solution, with a graphite kathode... beware of Cl2 fumes though!
Else, you could always obtain NiO from pottery supplies, i.e. briarwheels, and simply dissolve NiO in HCl to get NiCl2.
good luck 